Wolf Change
by pinecone.girl
Summary: Just a oneshot on the wolf change from 'blood and chocolate'. R&R please! T for some graphic images.


**This was originally a short story for school and i was too lazy to change anything so sorry if things don't exactly fit together. ok?**

Wolf Change

**Wolf Change  
**  
Corsair of the wood  
discard your skin  
your pallid, worm-like  
vulnerability.  
Corsair of the wood  
exchange your skin  
for pelt of dun  
and brindle luxury.

A pentagram is burning  
in your eyes  
and soft, pale twists  
of wolfbane  
squeeze your heart.  
A grinding pain  
is writhing in your thighs  
the crunch of bones  
proclaims the change's start.

Pirate of the flesh  
throw back your head  
and part your jowls  
to sing a lunar song.  
the forest paths are dark  
the night is long.

-Aiden Teague, 'Blood and Chocolate', Annette Curtis Klause

The change was and always would be glorious. The release, the freedom, the magnificence… even the pain was beautiful. The grinding, crunching spasms of rearranging joints was glorious, the stretching and shrinking of bones; glorious, the popping of transforming tendons… all was glorious. Her knees and spine exploded into sweet pain, her jaw and skull elongated in agonizing joy, her skull stayed level as she fell onto her quickly changing hands. Her fingers lengthened and grew long, sharp claws; her teeth were set free and sped below her lip. Soon a thick, rough pelt erupted from her skin and her mane swung as human skin loosed its tight embrace to rapidly growing muscle.

When she was complete, thick, rich fur had spread itself around her transformed body, her muscles strong and sinewy. Her digits had grown and elongated, to stand on only the pads of her long-toed paws, and elbows had lengthened to where the knees looked like they should have been. Now it was time to run, to leap and bound and spring and chase. The pack had likewise shed their pasty, ashen _human_ skin and stood in all of their resplendent glory. _The pack's numbers had shrunk as well as their loyalty, but the change was always wonderful._ Now they bared their fangs in elation and howled in unison to the moon; their goddess and guider. Yips and cries sounded out in playful harmonies, their voices rising with their urge to run.

Wolf was an extremely broad term in their case. The hair and general bone structure was vaguely similar, but their snouts were shorter, with longer teeth. Their ribs were _stronger_ and broader, their bones heavier and _stronger _(thicker?). They, alone among the weak races of the earth, had the ability to change at will on any night with any moon, but only the full moon could force them into submission; their toll a forced change. They also had the innate ability to heal at rapid rates; but not without the aid of their healer. They were beautiful and strong, lithe, racing creatures of the night, bound to no one but their pack, paying their respects to no one but their alpha.

Together as a pack they bounded off, legs straining and heads bobbing like dolphins in the sea. This was their element. The moon shone bright on their backs, encouraging them on and sinking like liquid into their fur, making it shine. Reddened eyes and snarling lips portrayed their euphoria for the hunt; together they ran, together they fought, together; as a pack. Bays and wails rose and fell as they traced the scent through the forest, and the black silhouettes of winter trees stretched above them as if they were stairways to the heavens.

With every bound of her paws she felt as if she could leap into the sky and dance along the Milky Way. The stars would be her roads, the moon her guide and guardian. Moonlight glanced off the gleaming snows that had spread gracefully over the evergreen branches, and from the twisted knots of broken trees frozen, golden sap shone like dimmed jewels. Snow was heaped in drifts along the banks and shores of the forest landscape, gleaming like crushed diamonds. Trampled was the snow where they had raced, sunken paw prints smeared like paint.

A movement in the trees. Deer? Perhaps a slinking bobcat or huddled hare. The packs attentions did not drift as they skidded to a stop, reveling in the sweet purity of the cold. Now that they had spent their initial rush of exuberance they were all attention to the slightest movement. Together they fanned out and worked as one, their practiced aptitude more than a match for any prey but cheating guns and fire. The signal finally came, and with a squeal of excitement from their uncontainable youth they leapt as one. Snarls and squeals of enthusiasm filled the air; the voracious hunt had consumed their blood. Jaws snapped and muscles twisted as the pack tried to get a hold on their victim's neck, but the mule deer was also swift. No amount of writhing, though, could stem the flow of its inevitable fate, and soon the doe was brought down to its knees and gave its final kicks of weak protest. _Growling and snapping, various members staked their bloody claim according to their rank. The youth fought resentfully for their meager meat._

Blood thrumming with success, the pack trotted joyously back to their clearing where they had, many steps ago, first transformed. Throwing back their head in submission to the rising sun they howled their last moonlit cries and let the change devour them. Spines and legs snapped spryly into their former place, and jaws contracted to their previous size. Their pelts of thick, now blood-streaked fur shrunk back into their skin, leaving them pale, naked and shivering. The hunt was over, and the first rays of the rising sun reached their pale fingers over the dark, frosted hills.

**tell me what you think... please? well, gotta get off the computer now so i havn't even re-read it so sorry if there are errors. review! please!**

**-me 3**


End file.
